Photo by Paul Warner/WireImageMichael Jackson’s mother took the stand Friday in the ongoing Los Angeles trial stemming from the lawsuit she filed against the concert promoter behind his aborted This Is It tour.

Katherine Jackson -- who has been present in court throughout the trial, which has lasted 12 weeks so far -- said, "The most difficult thing is to sit there in this court and listen to all the bad things they say about my son,” such as critics calling him a “freak.” She added, "They are not true.”

The 83-year-old Jackson matriarch said she expressed concerns about Michael’s rehearsal schedule for the This Is It concerts, and she feels no one attempted to help him when he was “sick.”

Jackson painted her son as a charitable individual who loved children, especially those who were less fortunate.

Jackson also recounted for the court her childhood, her marriage to Joe Jackson and her family’s humble life in Indiana. She said that Michael at an early age could never keep still, and was “dancing to the music.”

Jackson claims in her lawsuit that AEG contributed to her son's death by hiring Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving the King of Pop an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol.